Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Name that Mural on the corner of Houston and Bowery

If you don't know it was done by Barry McGee x Josh Lazcano

When legendary gallerist Jeffrey Deitch headed for greener pasture on the West Coast a few months ago, many pondered about the state of street art in New York City. Certainly the younger generations of gallerists, like Jonathan Levine and Joshua Liner, have become preeminent curators with their fresh take on street art as a whole. However, Deitch, with his inexhaustible resources still retain rein supreme in most people’s minds. That all changed last evening when artist Barry McGee and fellow graf writer Josh Lazcano (aka Amaze) started one of the most ambitious project thus far on the now exalted wall between Houston Street and Bowery (previous seen the works of Shepard Fairey, Os Gemeos, and Keith Haring).

The premise was a simple one, to tag as many graf writers call signs as possible. The task, however, was anything but. Started at midnight and continued till wee hours of the morning, the 2 writers worked in hurried yet familiar pace, adorned the wall with red tags of fellow writers, from distant past to present day, down to their cursive signatures. Like any suspicious activity, the duo draw the attention of NYPD several times, but completed project none the less.